Irish expel Demons

ND 13-1 at home with win

ND 13-1 at home with win

February 12, 2007|FORREST MILLER Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- With five Big East games remaining, Notre Dame is probably not going to finish 11th in the league as predicted. In fact, with some help from various sources, the Irish women could finish as high as second. Sunday Notre Dame took a step toward a higher finish by defeating DePaul, 78-70, before the second largest crowd of the season, 7,579, at the Joyce Center. "I'm thrilled with this victory,'' said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw, who takes her team on the road this week -- to Villanova Tuesday and to Providence Saturday. The Irish are 16-8, and tied for fifth in the league with Pittsburgh and South Florida at 7-4. All three are just a game out of second place -- a position currently shared by Rutgers, Louisville and Marquette. This one was truly a team effort. Charel Allen had another magnificent day with 25 points, a career high 13 rebounds and four assists. She was at the 25-point level for the fourth time this season. Ashley Barlow, whose move into the starting lineup represented the first change McGraw made in her starting unit all season, scored all but one of her 13 points in the second half. Barlow's first career start didn't work out well at the beginning. She drew two fouls in the first six minutes and watched the rest of the half on the bench. But she was a major factor as the Irish beat off repeated challenges from DePaul in the second half. Crystal Erwin had three late layups and a season-high eight rebounds. Melissa Lechlitner scored 13, her 3-for-3 shooting in the first half one reason why the Irish had a 32-26 lead at the break. Tulyah Gaines had five assists to go with her 12 points. Most impressive of the Blue Demons was Allie Quigley, who scored 12 of her 20 in the second half. She was able beat anybody off the dribble anytime she wanted while shooting 8-for-14 in the first half. "I had the shots in the first half, but Notre Dame cranked up the defense in the second half,'' said Quigley. DePaul coach Doug Bruno, his club 15-10 and 5-7 in the league, gave all the credit to Notre Dame. "Notre Dame did a great job of defending us, and confused us offensively resulting in turnovers,'' said Bruno. The Demons had 23 turnovers, the 17th time this season an Irish opponent had 20 of more turnovers. "We're pretty good at making teams turn the ball over,'' said McGraw. Coming in, these were the top two teams in the Big East in free throw percentage, but they combined to miss 17 times. DePaul was 8-for-13 and Notre Dame 26-for-38. "We could never find a rhythm on offense," added Bruno. "Notre Dame didn't do anything we didn't expect, but still did a good job of confusing us.'' Some of that confusion led to DePaul burning two timeouts before the first media timeout in the second half -- the Demons were out of timeouts with 6:06 to play. "Of course that hurt us,'' said Bruno. "But we had to stop Notre Dame's momentum. And we used one to save a possession.'' McGraw made the switch in the starting lineup, Barlow for Melissa D'Amico, in part to defend DePaul's armada of 3-point shooters. Still the Demons shot 8-for-23 while the Irish were 0-for-8. "I didn't change my approach of anything like that,'' said Barlow. "I think in the second half I showed people how I can play.'' Behind Quigley's 20, China Threatt had 16 off the bench for DePaul. Caprice Smith and Sam Quigley, Allie's younger sister, had 10 each. DePaul's Erin Carney fouled out with 6:29 to play. Allen thought the loose officiating helped her game. "They weren't calling much, so I just went after every loose ball,'' said Allen, who now has 909 career points. DePaul led by six points on three occasions in the first half, the last time at 19-13. A runner down the lane by Allen put Notre Dame ahead for the first time, 20-19, with 6:09 to go in the half. That was part of a 7-0 burst that pushed the Irish to a 22-19 lead. Allie Quigley tied it with a 3-pointer, but two Allen free throws broke the tie and Notre Dame never trailed. An 11-5 start to the second half put the Irish up 43-31, but DePaul closed to 47-43 on a jumper by Threatt with 10:13 to play. Allen's 3-point play with 9:51 to play made it 50-43 and the Irish were able to protect a single digit margin the rest of the way. McGraw wasn't pleased that DePaul was able to score seven points in the last minute. "Our defense needs some work,'' she said. The Irish are 13-1 at the Joyce Center this season.